'We play football on Sunday': team's decision to play on despite NFL player's death

Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers players form a prayer circle after the Chiefs' win an NFL football mtach a day after one of their players was involved in a murder suicide in Kansas City. Photo: Reuters

Just 27 hours later, he was back at work, coaching the squad to a 27-21 win over the Carolina Panthers at the same ground.

Despite being offered to postpone the game, Crenell and the Chiefs players voted to play on, prompting many to ask how they could possibly compartmentalise such a traumatic event, and do their jobs as if it was just another normal Sunday.

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, pictured on November 25, shot and killed his girlfriend before taking his own life, police say. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images/AFP

"We are football players and football coaches, and we play football on Sunday," Crennel said in a news conference after the game.

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"If for no other reason, it takes our mind off our misery for a few hours, and that's what it did."

Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said after discussions with the NFL, he left the decision about whether to play with Crennel and the team, and they decided the game should go on.

"Romeo called the team captains yesterday afternoon ... and they all wanted to play the game," Hunt told ESPN on the field beforehand.

"And I asked coach Crennel, 'Do you think the right thing is to go forward?' and he said, 'I do. Under the circumstances, it's going to be tough.'"

Before the match, fans observed a moment of silence for all victims of domestic violence.

The NFL historically has been reluctant to postpone games.

It stayed with the schedule in November 2007 after Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor was fatally shot by an intruder in his Miami home. In 2010, the Denver Broncos played a game scheduled six days after the suicide of wide receiver Kenny McKinley.

The NFL also went ahead with games in November 1963, just 48 hours after the assassination of President Kennedy, a move that then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle later said was the biggest mistake of his career.

Back on the horse

"People grieve in different ways," Dr Joel Fish, director of the Center for Sport Psychology in Philadelphia, said.

"Sometimes getting back on the horse right away is actually helpful to allowing players to literally move on...

"Typically in a situation like this, there will be choices given. People have different ways to grieve, make sense of the trauma and move on."

How the Chiefs cope long-term will have a lot to do with the quality and continuity of grief-counselling they from management, PhD psychotherapist Jay Granat said. The team has announced counsellors will be made available.

"When there's a workplace tragedy like this, how management responds is huge," said Granat, 60, a New Jersey clinical psychotherapist for more than 25 years.

Before turning the gun on himself, Belcher killed his girlfriend, identified as Kasandra Perkins, 22, by police, leaving behind an infant daughter.

"If I ran the team, I would say, 'Let's set up a fund for that child,"' Granat said. "I'd do that pretty promptly, so that the players know they're going to take care of her, that 'She's part of our family."'

Granat said counselling will be important now and going forward. He predicted an aftershock among Chiefs players and organisational members, the greater Kansas City community and the league beyond Belcher's family and friends.

"This is very much like a tragic loss in a family," Granat said. "That shock and almost denial and unbelievability will be the first stage...

"You typically have grief counsellors coming in. But some of the players will feel worse in a couple of weeks. That can be anticipated. The reality of this loss will set in. And some of them will feel worse in a couple of weeks."

Fish said there would be two types of counselling offered and it's important players take advantage of what works best for them.

"The grief counseling usually has a team and a one-to-one component to it, the team one being, 'Let's get all the players together here and talk about this together,"' Fish said. "Because there's something that can be healing about people just being with other people in the same boat in a traumatic situation.

"Then, the organisation usually makes the grief counseling available to each individual one-to-one because each person is so different. Who knows what their relationship was with (Belcher) and what experience they've had in their own background with loss and suicide?"

The nightmarish nature of the Belcher murder-suicide likely will weigh heavier and linger longer.

"This is not just a death, it's a murder and a suicide," said Granat. "It's obviously the loss of two lives and now a child is orphaned. This is a quadruple trauma in terms of the losses -- a murder and suicide, a crime and then, of course, a child being orphaned.

"And then there's the impact on teammates."

* Support is available for anyone who may be distressed by calling Lifeline 131 114, Mensline 1300 789 978, Kids Helpline 1800 551 800.